LOS ANGELES – A former U.S. Olympic team coach who guided American gymnastics to some of its most iconic and triumphant moments could face a lifetime ban from the sport after three women have come forward to accuse him of having sex with young gymnasts in the 1980s.

Don Peters coached the groundbreaking U.S. women's team to a record eight medals at the 1984 Olympic Games and built SCATS, a Huntington Beach gymnastics club, into an international powerhouse with a string of Olympians and national champions.

It was during that same decade that Peters had sex with three teenage gymnasts, three women have told The Orange County Register.

Doe Yamashiro, a former U.S. national team member who trained with Peters at SCATS in the 1980s, told the Register that Peters repeatedly fondled her, beginning when she was 16, and had sexual intercourse with her when she was 17.

A second former SCATS gymnast told the Register that Peters had sexual intercourse with her when she was 18. The woman said she had earlier been sexually abused by her father, abuse that Peters was aware of, she said. The woman has asked not to be identified in this story but has signed a sworn declaration attesting to the truth of her story, as has Yamashiro.

Linda McNamara, a former assistant director at SCATS who shared an office with Peters, has also told the Register that Peters confessed to her in the early 1990s to having sex with Yamashiro, the second former SCATS gymnast and a third teenage gymnast.

The women's allegations are echoed by family members and other gymnasts close to them. The women said they are coming forward now to expose the sport's exploitive culture and USA Gymnastics' failure to pursue sexual abuse more aggressively.

Yamashiro and McNamara told the Register that they have reported these allegations to USA Gymnastics, the sport's national governing body, and that the federation is conducting an investigation of Peters.

Yamashiro said she has been interviewed by a USA Gymnastics investigator. The second gymnast said she still has not been contacted by USA Gymnastics nearly 11 months after McNamara provided her name to USAG officials.

USA Gymnastics President Steve Penny said he could neither confirm nor deny that Peters is under investigation by USA Gymnastics, citing the organization's policy. But in a Nov. 19 email to McNamara, a copy of which was obtained by the Register, Penny confirmed that Peters' case was "under review."

"I don't have anything to say about any of that," Peters said when contacted by the Register.

An attorney for Peters, Kevin O'Connell, acknowledged that the coach is under investigation but said the matter is private.

"Doe Yamashiro is not a victim of repressed memory and never wanted this matter to become public," O'Connell said in an email. "The other incidents you have alleged are wrong. (The Register's) knowledge of the allegations and conduct of USA Gymnastics is an invasion of Mr. Peters' privacy."

Since receiving that email in June, The Register has repeatedly contacted O'Connell and asked for a more specific response to the allegations against Peters. O'Connell has not responded to those requests.

SPECIAL RELATIONSHIPS

Team USA's success at the 1984 Olympic Games firmly established the American women as a global superpower in the Olympics' marquee women's sport. American women have won 23 Olympic medals since the 1984 Games, including the last two individual all-around titles. Those triumphs have helped USA Gymnastics grow into a worldwide brand, attracting corporate sponsors like Visa, AT&T, Hilton, adidas and NBC.

But the sport's success has come at a steep price, some former Olympic and World Championship team members said. Female gymnasts peak in their teens. The average age of the U.S. squad that won the team silver medal at the 2008 Olympics was 17.5. The U.S. team that won the 2003 World Championships team gold medal had an average age of 16.

To achieve such a high level of performance at such a young age, many girls are already training as much as 30 to 40 hours a week while still in grade school, leaving them socially isolated and emotionally dependent on their coaches.

"There is a special relationship between a coach and an athlete, particularly in an individual event sport like gymnastics, swimming, tennis," said Charol Shakeshaft, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth. "The coach is very important to the success of the athlete, and there are no other places to find that support, or at least that's what the athlete believes, usually because the coach has taught the athlete that message: 'Without me, you wouldn't be able to do this.'

Longtime U.S. national team coach Don Peters, working with gymnasts at SCATS in Huntington Beach June 19, 1996. ANA VENEGAS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
American gymnast Mary Lou Retton after the vault competition at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles on Aug. 5, 1984. U.S. Olympic head coach Don Peters is applauding (blue jacket) behind cameraman. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bitter rivals Bela Karolyi, left, and Don Peters, center, at the U.S. Olympic Women's Gymnastics Trials in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Aug. 4, 1988, around the time Peters resigned as U.S. Olympic coach. He was replaced by Karolyi in a power struggle. HAL STOELZLE, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Gymnastics coach Don Peters at SCATS in Huntington Beach on Feb. 7, 1988. Peters was U.S. national team coach from 1981 through 1987. THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Gymnastics coach Don Peters works with a gymnast at SCATS in Huntington Beach on Feb. 7, 1988. Peters was U.S. national team coach from 1981 through 1987. THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Coach Don Peters with Julianne McNamara at the 1984 Olympics. With Peters as the U.S. team's head coach, the American women won the silver medal in the team all-around at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, the first U.S. women's Olympic medal since 1948. Four of the six members on the silver medal team trained under Peters at SCATS. McNamara, a SCATS gymnast, also won the uneven bar's gold medal and the silver in the floor exercise. THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
USA Gymnastics President Steve Penny would neither confirm nor deny when asked if the organization is investigating Don Peters. BOB LEVEY, GETTY IMAGES
Don Peters is one of the most iconic and revered figures in U.S. gymnastics. THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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